


Star crossed

by Dreamystory



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Inspired by The Greatest Showman (2017), Song: Rewrite the Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamystory/pseuds/Dreamystory
Summary: What if we change the world to be ours?
Relationships: Axel (Kingdom Hearts)/Elsa (Disney)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 2





	Star crossed

Elsa Agnarsdottir fiddled with the trapeze rope she held in her hand, twisting it and turning it as she pleased until it was the way she wanted. Tough, a sailor's knot that wouldn't allow her to fall in mid-training and crash to the ground. Let's face it, Elsa was a phenomenal artist and the fact that the rope could untie was totally unlikely, but every time she checked and double-checked that knot with clinical insistence, Why? there was no why. She liked safety ... being part of a traveling circus certainly didn't mean not taking care of your tools and safety. especially when it comes to falling from more than seven meters high and risking breaking your neck. And trust me, there was an absurd ease in dying as a trapeze artist. A poorly balanced jump, a little elaborate twist and you risk crashing face down on the ground.  
A broken bone is what a trapeze artist did not need, especially on tour and above all in order not to make the company look bad. What need was there to shift unwanted attention to oneself?  
none. Exactly.

She pulled her attention slightly away from the rope to her long hair, loosened from the braid she had held up to that moment and absently tucked one strand behind her ear without paying too much attention to the other one still over her left eye. When she was done fixing everything she leaned back on the railing of the ledge, closing her eyes and exhaling for a good minute with the rope still in her delicate yet strong enough hands to hold and balance as he whirled through the air. Spinning in the air like a dragonfly, a butterfly, an eagle ... the only thing that really gave her peace was being at one with the wind, letting go. Letting her hair float in the air, performing the most incredible stunts only to hear the world gasp with delight, people humming down below ...  
that's why she liked it. From above she could be anything, feel in control of what she did. The people over there were far away, with their murmurs about how a girl in a circus was a source of disapproval. Let them talk, while she was up there nothing was important.  
So she had thought, until it was up there that she had caught a glance.  
A look different from the others, a look that even if for a fraction of a second had told her more than she could have imagined ... they had told each other everything they needed to say just by looking at each other as she whirled in front of him.  
Him.

Him and his damn name, so hard to forget exactly how those green eyes and the look they exchanged. The seemingly indifferent look she had given him ... just to see him desire her even more than he did  
"and what is your act, Mr. Wood?"  
he cleared his throat "I, uh ... I don't have an act." he replied with a touch of embarrassment. Elsa couldn't help but find it ... tender. An embarrassed middle school boy in front of a beautiful girl, that's what he was at that moment. She had chuckled "everyone has an act."  
one look, and she had walked away feeling those eyes on her shoulders.

They had met a couple of times. The circus owner always tried to keep them as close as possible: he as an apprentice, she as a showgirl. Yet their interactions were fully exchangeable for interactions in terms of friendship ... even though inside they both yelled "I like you, damn!"  
It wasn't shyness that hindered them ...  
social status.  
That was a huge problem.

Axel Wood was presumably of affluent descent, but according to the circus director that both blatant and spontaneous personality was wasted in high society, so he had convinced him to join them.  
And Elsa ... Elsa was an orphan, a daughter of the road abandoned after the death of her parents. A perfect miss nobody, with no money in his pocket, without a past and without a story. She had nothing beyond the trapeze ...  
And even if they liked each other? Even if who knows, something had clicked between them? Any spark that could ever come out was destined to be extinguished in the bud in an irrepressible way by people's prejudices.

Elsa got up dragging the rope behind her when a voice around the corner made her jump "strange time to train." and leaning against the door jamb Axel seemed to be gazing at her, red hair was the only thing detectable in the dim light of the half-light. Elsa put a hand to her chest to control her heartbeat, sighing in relief "Axel ... what are you doing here?" She couldn't help but ask "I've had a heart attack, you're as quiet as a snake." She gave him a grim look, to which he replied with a very sharp smile "I'm happy to see you too." he answered with a hint of amused sarcasm. Elsa shook her head, sighing and returning to the rope ... just one last check before taking off. Behind her, Axel spoke again "if you keep undoing the knot like that you will end up ruining it." instinctively, the trapeze artist rolled her ice-colored eyes to the sky invoking patience. How did he pretend to know more than she did? More than her, who grew up among the circus performers and their acrobatics, their techniques and their tricks.  
Madness.  
So sure of himself even though he didn't know the first thing about the circus, or life as a performer in general.

"I think I know how, thank you very much." she snapped, still dragging the rope behind her. She stopped realizing that he hadn't caught the hint, or maybe he was just ignoring it. The girl stopped "Axel. Why are you here?" she asked, this time her voice became full of confusion and melancholy to which those green eyes immediately reacted with embarrassment, looking away but not at her and her pale face with a sprinkle of freckles. "I ... uh ... wanted to see if everything was okay."

Elsa raised an eyebrow in his direction. That gesture was enough to send him into complete confusion "I meant that ... uhm ... you seemed shaken after today." he said rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed as a few times and avoiding eye contact.  
Today?  
...  
Oh.

Some troglodytes disapproved of the circus, and shouted insults at every opportunity ... taking the women of the company as a target and ravaging them with insults. So much so that the director had ended the show early, sending everyone out.  
"I'm ... I'm fine." she stumbled back, with a sigh that made him take a step forward until he was behind her.  
Elsa was holding the rope so tight in her hands that her knuckles turned white ... almost like that clenched fist was ready to punch anyone who dared to touch her. Axel noticed it immediately and slowly slipped a gloved hand over hers, slowly so as not to scare her. "They have a narrow mindset. It's not your fault." he spoke softly, pulling the rope from her hands. She couldn't practice if she was so tense. She risked getting hurt.  
"no one has ever looked at you the way others look at me, Axel." Being a woman and not having a decent job by the standards of the time was absolutely intolerable ... as if a low-ranking woman didn't count for anything.  
His hand didn't let go of it "all nonsense." he said "why do you care so much about them?" 

"because they are the people whose money doesn't allow us to end up in the middle of the road." she answered in a subdued tone "... it's over if we antagonize the crowd, don't you understand?" she turned to face him better, having to lift her chin more than she should to look him in the eye. Their hands were still intertwined, a detail that Elsa immediately noticed just as she noticed the softness of the glove and how evident the difference between their hands was. His was in proportion to his own slender body: a large hand, with long, tapered fingers that gave him an authoritative feel in stark contrast to the small but no less slender hand than hers with thin but shorter and decidedly more feminine fingers. They seemed to glue perfectly together ... they adhered perfectly, skin against glove like two pieces, a puzzle joined and together in a single large mosaic of diversity.  
Diversity.  
Exactly...  
what kept them apart.  
With a reluctant sigh, Elsa separated their hands and wrapped hers around her arms "... you have to go away, please." and turned around  
"Elsa-" he tried to reach her hand again, but she pulled away "No, you don't understand ..." her voice cracked dangerously. She didn't dare look him in the eye "you and I are incompatible ..."  
bloody hell. They were more compatible than anyone else. But society would never accept that. "What do you mean I don't understand?" his determined tone was in stark contrast to her sadly resigned tone. Axel's posture was leaning forward, demonstrating with his whole body how willing he was to fight against prejudices for the two of them. "I'm just as involved as you are! You know what I'm telling you? To hell with what people think!" he was gesticulating a lot with those big hands, angrily harmonious in their almost mellifluous movements. "we two like each other, or am I wrong?"

No. He wasn't wrong.  
maybe just because they didn't "like" each other.  
They loved each other.  
But it was a love that was destined to be unfortunate, unhappy ... a story with no happy ending. "..." Elsa sighed, grabbing the rope again and heading to the center of the arena so as not to give him attention ... or at least try. But how could she, when every atom of her body quivered to run towards him? please, please follow me  
Axel's footsteps soon after comforted her, just like a hand pulling the rope to himself "don't you dare try to push me away."  
"it's for both of us-"  
"HAH! you can't know if you're doing my good ... and you're not even doing your good" his tone was sharp, but somehow desperate and truthful. Elsa snorted "let go of the rope-" instead of giving up he did the opposite, he continued to drag the rope towards him "I don't know about you, but I refuse to give up on you." Elsa found herself catapulted against him, gliding straight towards his chest and finding herself with her cheek above it and drawing support with her hands resting on it "what makes you think that I want to give up on you?" she protested, looking him in the eye as she took possession of the rope again. "Do you really think I don't want to run to you?"  
Axel tried to reach out to her, but she dodged by yanking the rope and hovering into the air, leaving him on the ground. "Elsa-" she looked around the arena, believing she had just used a circus ploy to get out of the way ... but all was denied when she saw her descend above a trapezoid circle, light filtering from the spotlights. behind her that made her look like a real celestial being.  
"Wow ..." he managed to murmur as he watched her descend and wondered for a moment if heaven really was like that.  
"there are too many mountains we should climb." she said, now finally on the ground and face to face with him, her beautiful face resigned in every respect "let's demolish them then." his tone was in stark contrast to her dark tone of "it's not that simple."

"we can make it simple."  
Elsa sighed, settling upside down on the circle "now you say so, but sooner or later you will realize that there is no hope for us." The circle was rising to such a high altitude that Axel was forced to let go of it and fall back into the sand. And she was gone again "You can't know! A couple like us has never been!" he said aloud so she could hear wherever she was.

Elsa stepped on toes over a railing when she replied "that's why there should never be a couple like us .... people judge." Axel had to dodge when she slammed off the railing, swinging as if it were the most natural thing in the world "hey! Watch out!" he tried to protest at the same moment she ran into him. Their bodies collided with incredible grip, as if just like their hands were pieces of a puzzle waiting to come together. They rolled a few feet of sand, his black coat now completely submerged by it when they stopped rolling. She was straddling his chest, one hand on it and the other holding the rope "when will you know I'm not the one for you?" She yanked on the rope and grabbed it immediately. The effect was that she snapped back into the air. But Axel would not have let her slip this time too. With a feline snap he grabbed the rope and pulled it down, preventing her from going any higher than he could reach. "sure you're the one! I was made to be yours, and vice versa." he exclaimed, watching her spin into the air. Her voice was barely strained "everyone will tell us this is how we must be." He answered.  
"then let's rewrite the stars!"

she spun down, very fast. So fast that he barely had time to catch her and hold her from behind: her chest was going up and down slowly, as if she hadn't just performed an incredible stunt. Her stamina was incredible "... rewrite the stars?"  
"It's easier than you think." he answered, his cheek pressed against hers "and the world will be ours, at least for one night." A hand that wasn't hers reached out to the opposite cheek to caress it "all I want is to fly with you." he murmured.

his warmth ... She could have stayed with him forever. But in her heart she knew that that relationship was destined to break down ... slowly the young trapeze artist freed herself from his grip taking her hands in hers "... but we are destined to break." and albeit slowly, Elsa untied their intertwined fingers, without looking him in the eye "Elsa."  
She didn't look at him.  
"my hands are tied." she murmured sadly, and without another word turned and hurried away from him. Axel stood there, motionless as the trapeze artist who had stolen his heart disappeared from his sight.


End file.
